But there’s one more difference for us Yanks. For most of us, especially the old-timers (I’m pushing 50), we grew up on insipid lagers that for the most part tasted all alike. Like many of my generation, my first introduction to the diverse possibilities of better beer was English ales like Bass and Newcastle. Hard as it may be to believe, in the late 1970s those brands represented innovation and something very different than we were used to. I suspect none of you across the pond had the same experience since those brands would have been as familiar to you as Big Ben or the Queen, just something that had been there as long as you could remember. And most of our early microbreweries brewed a rough approximation of English-style ales so pale ales, brown ales, porters and all the styles you take for granted were astonishingly fresh and new to us. I still shake my head whenever I’m in your part of the world and see so many people drinking the tasteless lagers that were my only choice growing up. Maybe it’s human nature to crave the unfamiliar, and it sure seems every generation re-invents themselves and what they decide is cool and what isn’t. I like a good lager as much as the next guy, but I have a soft spot for your ales because they were such a catalyst to my own beery awakening. So perhaps you’ll forgive my maudlin nostalgia.

(1) It’s sad to see a historic brand go – well, “Scottish and Newcastle” as a brand isn’t that old, and swallowed up many other historic breweries on the way. Being taken over by someone else is the natural end.

(2) Johnny Foreigner doesn’t understand how to brew in the British market — if this isn’t plain jingoism, it’s a considerable overestimation of how complicated it is to brew some rather dull keg bitters and lagers. Heineken are quite capable of brewing those anywhere in the world.

From your post, the only reason you’d consider it a mistake is pure sentimentality!